Tuitioning high school students impacts warrant decisions

BARRINGTON — All School District warrant articles, including those related to the budget and anticipated tuition costs, were approved by town residents Monday and will appear on the ballot in March.

During Monday’s deliberative session, residents made no changes to the warrant articles recommended by the School Board.

In March, residents will vote on the $19,424,293 operating budget proposed for next year. They will also consider placing about $550,000 — which was initially reserved for building a new high school — into a fund for school facilities.

Superintendent Gail Kushner told residents the School Board no longer has plans to have a new high school constructed, due to the lack of state building aid available for the project. The School District’s high school tuition contract with Dover High School is expiring next year. Before the contract expires, School Board members are hoping new tuition agreements will be established with area high schools, so that parents will have more choices where to send their children to school.

Kushner said that currently the district spends more than $5 million on tuition for high school aged Barrington students. With tuition being about $11,086 per student, tuition takes up about 25 percent of the School District budget, and 30 more high school aged students are expected to live in Barrington next year, she said.

In two separate contingent warrant articles, the $550,000 that has been saved for a future new high school is proposed to be instead used for school facilities. Kushner said a priority is replacing the 23-year-old roof at the Elementary School.

This year’s ballot will also propose creating a capital reserve fund for future high school tuition costs, and placing $160,000 in that fund from this year’s surplus money. Kushner said this new fund would “soften the blow” to the upcoming negotiated tuition to neighboring high schools.

Other warrant articles ask voters to make the School Board be agents to expend from the technology equipment replacement capital reserve fund, and to authorize the district to retain emergency funds. The amount of these funds would not exceed 2.5 percent of the district’s net assessment each fiscal year, and these funds could only be spent with approval from the School Board and commissioner of education. If the funds are not used during a given fiscal year for emergencies, that money would be used to offset taxes at the end of the fiscal year.